Technology in Learning: Reshaping the Educational Landscape

Overview

In a period of considerable uncertainty the UK education sector must adapt to a new landscape and maintain its position as a global leader. Following the Brexit result, the future direction on EU research funding programmes, student mobility schemes and employability are all still unclear at this point. From April 2017 the recently announced Apprenticeship Levy will open up new opportunities surrounding funding, skills and learning. Industry, universities and schools will work together for the promotion of work-based qualifications and job-specific skills.

The next stage of the Teaching Excellence Framework, increasing student expectations and a strong competitive environment for both UK and international students also join the list of challenges for the education sector. Digital technology has the potential to enhance the quality of education making a difference on the learning value through a more personalised, tailored experience. Measuring learning gain in knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal development is vital to understand the quality and impact of education on students. Information technology has built a new world, and the education system has the resources and ability to reshape and respond to these changes.

This is an exciting new stage for education providers of all kinds working in partnership with employers and professional bodies. The British education system has an outstanding international reputation and plays a vital role in UK research, skills and economic growth. This agenda will help you to be flexible and agile enough to meet user demands and to keep pace with the latest trends and innovations that are driving educational change.

Technology in Learning: Reshaping the Educational Landscape will encourage dialogue across the sector, promote partnerships and explore new and innovative ways to use technology to successfully face the current changes in the education system.

Major changes are currently facing the education sector, from area based reviews and development of apprenticeships in the Further Education system to how we demonstrate excellence in teaching and research in Higher Education.

In April, the Government is introducing the new Apprenticeship Levy that will help organisations to understand their future workforce needs, identify skills gaps and provide and manage training programmes through apprenticeships. A central feature of the service is the extensive use of online learning, which will encourage greater access and opportunity to expand the scheme across businesses and learning providers. KPMG and The Open University (OU) are already joining forces to launch an apprenticeship service that enables employers to identify and fulfil their future training needs.

Over the last few decades the internationalisation of UK universities has increased. In 2014-15 71% of full-time master’s level students, and more than half of PhD students in the UK, came from overseas. Following the referendum, early signs point to a reduced number of international students. UCAS admissions figures show a drop of 564,000 students from the European Union for the start of the 2017/18 academic year. Universities need to find effective ways of actively engaging with prospective student audiences abroad to potentially mitigate the impact. Transnational education has increased in recent years and distance learning or online provision as a form of TNE is becoming popular between UK universities.

Universities already collect vast amounts of data about their student populations, but often this is underutilised. Learning analytics have the potential to enable institutions and individuals to better understand and predict personal learning needs and performance. Universities UK has recently published a report for the better use of analytics in higher education where analyse the benefits universities can get through effective implementation of appropriate technology and techniques.

Learning gain, one of the priorities in the new Teaching and Excellence Framework, is vital to understand the quality and impact of HE on students. As a key element of its learning gain programme, HEFCE have just launched the National Mixed Methodology Learning Gain Project. With 27,000 students and 10 English Universities involved, the project aims to understand how students’ knowledge and skills develop during the course of their degree.

Technology in Learning: Reshaping the Educational Landscape will explore best practice examples on the use of technology to meet user demands and to keep pace with the latest changes that the educational system is facing. Delegates will have the opportunity to discuss how latest learning technologies such as Flipped Classrooms, Open Courses, new models of online-learning and Gamification can be used to complement and transform traditional teaching methods.

Keynote Address

Enhancing the digital capabilities of educators is just as important as expanding the digital literacy of students. Learning how to use social media for practitioner-based learning and educationally relevant activities means that today’s educator will experience an always-moving digital learning curve.

Universities already collect vast amounts of data about their student populations, but often this is underutilised. The current ‘state of the science’ of learning analytics means that substantial benefits could already be realised through effective implementation of appropriate technology and techniques. Learning analytics has the potential enable institutions and individuals to better understand and anticipate personal learning needs and performance. Realising this potential requires an understanding of the strengths and challenges associated with the technology and of the interplay between professional practice and technology

This presentation will provide an overview of HEFCE’s learning gain programme including details of the pilot projects involved and the National Mixed Methodology Learning Gain Project. As part of HEFCE’s commitment to supporting excellence and innovation in learning and teaching, the programme of work focuses on developing and testing new ways of capturing educational outcomes and analysing how students benefit from higher education.

10:30

Question and Answer Session

11:00

Coffee in the Networking Area

The advent of e-Learning has prompted the development of web-based learning systems, recognising there is no fixed learning pathway that will be appropriate for all learners. However, most learning platforms with personalised learning sequencing rely on a learner’s preferences. However if we want students to be able to learn to make reliable judgements about their learning and to identify any further support they require to meet their learning goals, then personalised automatic feedback should play an important role. This presentation explores the role that technology enhanced feedback can play in the pursuit of a personalised learning agenda.

12:05

Case Study

The Faculty of Mathematics and Science at the University of Bergen is working towards digitizing all final exams by the end of 2017. While this goal can be met by using multiple choice assessment tests, digital assessment technology opens up for a diversity of assessment forms that can strengthen the alignment between teaching and assessment as well as train students’ capabilities in using digital tools for math and science. This talk presents some of the experiences from the Faculty’s work on implementing digital assessment technology and rethinking assessment forms to improve students’ learning outcomes.

Question and Answer Session

Lunch in the Networking Area

Chair’s Afternoon Address

"Embracing Innovation: How to Build an Innovative and Agile E-learning Team"

Founded with a mandate to deliver fully-online postgraduate-level programmes, and some ambitious targets to meet, King’s Online has also embraced another objective: to build a team capable of delivering extensive innovation within these strict production deadlines. Eighteen months on, we explore the successes (and lessons learnt) of this approach, and what comes next.

14:30

Panel Discussion

Zac Woolfitt, Research Group Leader, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands (confirmed)

John Trasler, President, European Association of Distance Learning (confirmed)

Distance learning experts in an international Framework will discuss their challenges and opportunities to help attendees to develop and find a position regarding the variety of technological developments for digital teaching and learning programs in the field of distance learning.

15:10

Afternoon Refreshment Break

Increasing demand for higher quality education and rising participation rates in source countries have accelerated TNE growth in recent years and distance learning or online provision as a form of TNE is becoming popular for UK universities. The largest providers are University of London International Programmes, The Open University and the University of Liverpool.

15:45

Closing Keynote Address

"Global Trends and How Google Is Empowering Students and Researchers to Build What Is Next"

Powerful technology trends have converged to fundamentally shift the playing field in most industries. Understand how Google is helping solve the worlds biggest challenges and how students, researchers and education can use Google’s capabilities in big data, compute, analytics and machine learning to build what is next.

16:05

Question and Answer Session

16:20

Chair’s Closing Remarks and Event Close

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